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Lafite Starts U.K. Sales Before U.S. as Market Picks Up

Bottles of Chateau Latour 1996 and Chateau Mouton-Rothschild 1996 Bordeaux. The bottles are in a Sotheby's January London wine auction. Source: Sotheby's via Bloomberg.

Jan. 26 (Bloomberg) -- A case of Chateau Lafite 1982
Bordeaux, along with Chateau Latour from the same year and
Romanee-Conti Burgundies, will go on sale at Sotheby’s in London
this week before the focus of wine auctions moves to New York.

Sotheby’s is estimating the Lafite 1982 will fetch as much
as 30,000 pounds ($47,400) a case while the Latour may sell for
as much as 14,500 pounds, according to its online catalog. Two
12-bottle assortments of Domaine de la Romanee Conti 1999 are
estimated at as much as 34,000 pounds each.

The Liv-ex Fine Wine 50 Index has risen 3 percent so far
this month, after a drop of 9.7 percent last year, and has now
gained for four of the past six months. The Chinese New Year
celebrations in February are helping to drive demand, along with
investors and collectors looking to take advantage of lower
prices following market declines.

“The wine market has turned and is definitely on the move
again,” Miles Davis, partner at Wine Asset Managers LLP in
London, said by e-mail yesterday. “Demand from China has
returned in style and nearly all of the major stock holders are
low on inventory.”

Other top lots at the Jan. 30 sale include wines from
Domaine Armand Rousseau, notably a case of Chambertin 1999
Rousseau carrying an estimate of as much as 12,000 pounds and 12
bottles of Chambertin Clos de Beze 2005 Rousseau estimated at as
much as 10,500 pounds, according to the auction house’s website.

Sotheby’s is also auctioning Latour 1996 priced at as much
as 5,500 pounds a case, as well as Krug Champagne.

Christie’s International Plc is scheduled to hold a sale in
London on Feb. 21, after which the focus switches to New York
with auctions from both Sotheby’s and Acker Merrall & Condit on
Feb. 23.

Following is a list of global wine sales scheduled so far
this year. Dates may be subject to revision, and links are to
auction house sale catalogs and websites.